Wait until it boiled and then add pomegranate. Again, this potion was simple! Almost too simple. Was it going to pick up suddenly in the middle? Oooh, it would be like a roller coaster. The short girl really hoped that it picked up in difficulty somewhere in the middle so that she would be really challenged. After all, you never learn if you aren't challenged. That was a fact of life. Plus, it was fun to see who stepped up and who fell down. It was like picking an army. She had been reading too many old time books about ancient--an fictional-- wars or something on the train. A Song of Ice and Fire was just too good to put down! Or so her brother said. Personally, she found it a little crude, but it was still really interesting to read. And a look into the mind of her brother.

Besides thinking of what could possibly raise the difficulty of the potion, Caelen's thoughts were preoccupied with going to the library and picking up a potion book to look at in her spare time. Even if she couldn't make any of the potions right now in school, she could bring some written notes home to her potion obsessed brother and watch him do them if they were deemed too dangerous for her twelve year old self. Though she would sooo do them anyway. Stupidly overprotective brother.

Looking down at her cauldron, she saw that the water had come to the boil that was required. Good. There was a reason the twelve year old hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff last year and that was due to lack of patience. Seriously, the kid had none. It annoyed her mother to no end and was a real problem when she was a child. At least she was gaining that trait, but still. It used to annoy her friends and family to no end. Anyway, lack of patience behind her, she added the pomegranate, humming softly to herself. Looking around to see if anyone else needed help, the redhead tucked a strand of shoulder length hair behind her ear and waited for the next instruction, thinking about what she would ACTUALLY do with a strength potion.

Probably save maidens or male maidens --she didn't discriminate-- and show off to people and win strength competitions. Look all cute and innocent with her round blue eyes and freckled face and then lift cars like they were feathers. Oops, strongest man in the world, can you lift a car like it was a feather? Didn't think so. But there was also a question of how long the potion actually lasted. Because if it didn't last that long, then it was only good for small things, like carrying heavy groceries or lifting the couch when you vacuumed the living room.

"Professor? How long does the potion last? Because that would depend what you were able to do with it, right?" Hopefully he wouldn't ask her to go into detail about what she wanted to do with the potion in the first place. Because saying that you wanted to lift and throw cars like an old timey superhero and save the day didn't sound as cool to tell a whole class AND the teacher.

Alright, things seemed to be going okay, he might have even looked normal by now, with the rest of the class....

Oh sweet merlin.... Everything in his cauldron had VANISHED! (except the heart) Abel looked up to find the professor glaring at him, and he instantly shrank into his chair, wishing he could shrink his whole body in order not to be seen. He knew that look, that look was given to Abel when his father was just ready to scream.... Oh, please no.

"Uhm..." Think think, did the heart touch the unicorn hair? Not like he was really paying that much attention. However this was a crucial moment. "I don't think so.... Sir." Great. Abel's first lesson in a REAL school, and he's already messing up and in trouble.

Boiling Water? Eh, easy enough. If potions went like this all year maybe Zander would reconsider his opinion of this otherwise awful class. After taking a few minutes to nosily look at other students in the classroom Zander was sprayed with some of the boiling water from his cauldron. OW! Zander winced and jumped back in fright. Instead of screaming and making a big seen he kept it to himself. Well, better turn the heat down before it splatters all over the table. No worries though, nothing bad had happened quite yet! Next the pomegranate! Step 3? Done and done. This wasn't too bad after all!

And NOW they were meant to lower the heat.

After a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he pointedly ignored that boy (Zander) and addressed the rest of the class.

"Lower the heat to medium and wait for five minutes." He eyed them. "Five minutes only. If you don't have a watch, find someone with one." After having problems even with the simplest step, he felt the need to explain everything in detail. "And don't sat idly during that time. Clean a bowl. A cup. And a metal spoon," he eyed everyone again, including that boy (Zander), "C'mere, take a cup of re'em blood from the container I'll put on my desk in a moment, pour it into the bowl with salamander blood and stir them five times clockwise, five times counter clockwise. Once done, set the bowl aside and crush the griffin claw. It doesn't have to be perfectly powdered, just crush as well as you can. Use NO magic while crushing!"

CLEAR!? Could he speak slowly and clearly enough!?

Okay. He went ahead to update the blackboard and put the re'em container on his desk. Once he was done, he sat down at his chair again and watched them warily.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw.

OOC: I won't post again until afternoon tomorrow (in GMT), so that is well more than 12 hours to catch up if you must&want. :3 It doesn't matter if it's one big post or several small posts.

Important OOC note: I'm sorry for not being clear when I first posted. He's hoping everyone will get those things done before time's up, and that's why he didn't tell them what to do after the five minutes. So, he'll tell them what to do BEFORE the time's up. Now, it's the safest to RP as the clock is still ticking.

Adi couldn't help but notice that for such a simple step as Step 3, a lot of students seemed to have had problems with it. O_o There were less problems with more complicated steps. He wondered why that was so.

But he hadn't much time to dwell on that as Culloden spoke up about the next set of instructions. Adi paid close attention to them before getting started. First, he turned the burner down so that the flame under the cauldron was set to medium. Then, keeping a close eye on his watch, he waited for precisely five minutes while he Scourgified a bowl, cup and metal spoon.

The Badger boy headed up to the Professor's desk where he got a cup of re'em blood and poured it into the bowl which already contained the salamander's blood. Ugh! Sooo much blood! Back at his workstation, Adi set about mixing the two creatures' blood: Clockwise first- One...Two...Three...Four...Five...And then counter clockwise: One...Two...Three...Four...Five...

Time to powder the griffin claw! Adi did just that. Using no magic, of course. CrushCrushCrush! Once the claw was as crushed into a not so fine powder in his mortar, he consulted his watch. He had done everything in four minutes. Awesome!

Oh wow, Bay was completely shocked… how had so many people messed up adding a pomegranate to their potion, he slapped his hand against his head while also shaking it. Listening to Professor Culloden speak to these people he was just so surprised. Now that Professor Culloden was giving more instructions Bay's ears perked up.

Standing taller behind his work station he added what he needed to do to his notes. He thought before he did anything he would walk up and grab his re'em blood so he didn't have to come back. "Thanks Professor" he said as he lifted it off the desk. Walking back to his station he placed it carefully on the top as he started to follow the instructions, thank goodness he had that pocket watch his father gave him for his birthday. Taking it out he placed it on the table so he could see the time correctly.

Watching his watch so he could time it perfectly he watched as the clock turned to five after as he turned his heat to medium, now he needed to wait five minutes. As per his instructions Bay cleaned his bowl, cup and spoon using Scourgify. now that everything was clean he poured the re'em blood into the bowl that held the salamander blood and picking up his clean metal spoon he stirred five times clockwise one…two…three…four…five and then five times counter clockwise one…two…three…four…five.

Now that it was mixed he moved it to the side to crush his griffin claw. Moving over his mortar and pestle he also cleaned this before he started to crush his claw's. After he thought it was cleaned enough he placed his griffin claw in the mortar and started to crush it, just like the professor said it didn't have to be a fine powder. about a few minutes went by as he thought it was crushed enough as he looked at his watch he was so glad that he still had two minutes of time left of his five minute dead line, so he crossed off the steps that he had completed.

Sweet Circe, no one bothered to tell her she'd surrounded herself with Puffers today. Lex watched...and blinked at the boy who might have taken some actual offense to what she'd said...seriously?

"I didn't say you couldn't help him, don't take it serious, merlin." Or maybe it was just her. It could have been her, who knows. First Culloden--but that was on purpose--then Dima and now him? She couldn't even with these people right now, not when she had a potion to brew and a Professor that had taken a condescending tone with her.

And they said she was rude. Merlin.

...

.....

Make no mistake, there was a scowl set on her face. Did her waiting mean nothing to him? Did he want to come and inspect her cauldron? Hold her hand while she brewed? Read her s bedtime story when they were done? Lex gave a deliberate look to her cauldron before turning to the Professor again. "You know, now that you mention it, I'm not sure I know. Boiling is when the bubbles start coming up and heat rises, yeah?" And another deliberate look at her cauldron. "Think I got that step down. Yup." And one of those forced smiles like the one Grayson had just given her because she was trying to be nice, see? Good student who shouldn't be punished when she visited the office later. Ahem.



Oh gawwwwd, the next step involved her going up to his desk? What if he hexed her while she was up there? Not everyone could be as Professional as her you know. With a deep breath she lowered the flames and glanced down at the watch she'd been wearing. Five minutes and not a moment to waste so chancing that walk up to the Professor's desk. Just how many witnesses did she have in this class? You know, just in case.

Lex got up to the desk, gave a hesitant look to Professor Culloden before collecting a cup of Re'em blood and returning to her desk where she added it to the bowl of salamander. How did that go now...? Five clockwise one two three four five then five counterclockwise...one two three four five.

She glanced down at her watch, still some time left.

The Prefect shoved the bowl a little to the side, being careful not to get it on Dima's side then reached for the mortar and pestle. "Scourgify." To get them clean before taking the griffin claw and crushing it as fine as she could. By her watche's count, she still had some time left.

Wow, Professor Culloden could be a right grouchy gills when it came to Potions class. It was actually kinda funny, because Toby knew that he was actually just a big ol' pussycat. Still, some of the littler kids seemed a bit sad, like that one Ravenclaw, but Culloden had it covered. Seeeeee? If he was REALLY mean, he wouldn't console everyone so quickly. Professor Culloden just liked people to THINK he was a big scary ogre.

The heat on Toby's cauldron was lowered to medium and he tugged back his left sleeve so he could keep an eye on his watch.

"Scourgify," Tobias cast at a bowl, effectively cleaning it, before repeating the spell on a cup and metal spoon, as per Culloden's instructions. He moved to the front of the room again and filled his clean cup with re'em blood (ew ew ew ew ew oh no) before returning to his desk. Toby poured the re'em blood and salamander blood into the bowl before stirring. Five times clockwise, and five times anti-clockwise. There, done.

Now for the crushing.

Tobias reached for his mortar and pestle and cleaned them both with the scouring charm. Then he got to work crushing the griffin claw. The use of the griffin claw made Toby smile; his wand was made up of griffin claw, something he'd always found pretty cruel.

As Toby worked on crushing the claw, he glanced at his watch again. Had it been five minutes yet?

Huh. Cool. "Good to know. Thanks, sir." Sophie was beamy at him, then, happy to have distracted him from the nonsense of troublemakers for awhile, long enough to make him smile, too. Good.

That lighthearted mood didn't last long, though, for she had a potion to brew better than everyone else, and she slipped a gloved hand off to cast Incendio under the cauldron and raise the flame to a high heat. Sophie replaced her glove and scooted over to the man's desk to peer at the scale and dragon heart in the box. She stood back to watch Mo measure his out - she trusted him well enough, so when it was her turn, she followed suit and measured out the two kilograms of dragon heart as accurately as she could. Maybe... too perfectly, wanting there to be exactly two kilograms there before she added it to her potion.

When she was certain of her success, she turned around and verrrryyyyyy cautiously added the heart to the potion, the knowledge of how expensive the ingredient was apparent on her face. She looked nervous for the first time, not wanting to waste it or have any miss the cauldron or anything. But it was all added, and she still looked terrified as she took her seat once more. Okay. Done. So far so good, yeah?

Waiting around for the cauldron to boil was an easy enough task, and Sophie busied herself by slipping her gloves off and using her wand to clean them, the tabletop, the container she had used, and the bowl, mortar, and pestle she would undoubtedly need soon enough. At the same time, out of the corner of her eye, she was keeping an eye on Culloden as he dealt with the many problems of the class - and though sometimes she had to look away as his anger showed, other times she noticed that he almost... seemed to be trying to keep himself under control and show genuine kindness to some of those troublemakers. At those times, she actually stopped what she was doing to watch to smile at the situation, genuinely impressed with him.

That was a nice change in him from the past term. What brought that upon, she wondered? Maybe he was just really getting the hang of this teaching thing. Hm. She'd have to mention it to him later. Maybe he didn't even realize he was getting more patient. He deserved some credit, though, didn't he?

Peeking over the brim of the cauldron to see the gradual bubbling of the concoction, she set her wand aside, slid on her freshly cleaned gloves, and lowered the pomegranate into the boiling cauldron, careful not to let it splash. She studied the potion for a moment to see if it would change colors to something cool before removing her gloves again, checking her watch, and reducing the heat to a medium level. Five whole minutes, eh? She could sense Culloden's annoyance with the class as he gave those directions and tore her gaze away from him, unable to keep her mouth from twisting in secondhand embarrassment for everyone. He had the right to be annoyed with them, though, if they were going to mess up the simplest of steps, she supposed.

Sophie got to pace herself through those five minutes since she had already cleaned everything she needed to use next, so it was just a matter of preparing and combining ingredients. She rose with one clean cup in her gloved hands and moved the few paces away to Culloden's desk, where she gave him a grin of encouragement that he probably wouldn't understand yet. But he'd get it later when she would tease him about becoming a softie and accuse him of actually enjoying teaching now. Hehe.

Adding a cup of the re'em blood to her own cup from the container - it smelled more foul than she remembered last term - she headed back to her desk and set the cup aside for the moment while she added the blood of one mature salamander to her bowl. Then she poured the contents of the cup into the bowl, too, and eyed her wand, then her clean wooden stick, then her clean metal spoon. Which to use to stir blood, hm? Culloden didn't seem to want them to use magic yet, so the wand was out of the question, even if it was the easiest way to go... and the blood might stain the stick, she decided, so she scooped up the metal spoon. Rechecking the blackboard for directions, she stirred the two bloods together five times clockwise in a gentle motion... then five times the other way, counterclockwise. Setting the bowl aside, she went through the motions of re-cleaning her gloves before putting them back on, shuffling through her potions kit for the desired griffin claw, and adding it to her mortar. She began crushing with the pestle - crush, crush, crush - and flipped her wrist to check her watch - meh, she still had a minute and a half, so she took her time crushing the claw into a powder. No hurry. In the mean time, she kept shooting curious glances at Tobes. No problems with him, yeah? She admired his knack for following directions. He was a good kid.

They were almost doooone!

Concentrating on watching the potion brewing in front of him, Terry wasn’t really listening to the Professor responding to everyone and warning them of their mistakes. That was until he heard the words ‘baby face’ followed by ‘Radley’. He glanced up, a look of pure confusion on his face.

BABY FACE?!

Whaaaaaaaat?!

He blinked. Repetitively. If he hadn’t of been confused before he certainly was now. He didn’t have a baby face, did he?! And why was the Professor calling him this? “I.. What..?” he started, not sure how to go on, forgetting what he had actually said to him before. Something about waiting for it to boil right? ”Erm.. Yes. Yeah sorry, it was boiling.” Only just but it was bubbling around the edges and that constituted as boiling, at least it did in cooking. He wanted to ask why he’d called him that but Culloden already seemed to be in a bad mood and he didn’t want to get kicked out the class. Or lose points for that matter.

Moving on..

He lowered the heat down to medium first, concentrating so it was exactly perfect so there would be no mistakes and ‘baby face’ calling. He set the timer on his watch to exactly five minutes and pressed go, moving on to do the other task whilst he was waiting.

He grabbed his bowl performing ‘scourgify’ and watching it clean itself before continuing on to clean both the spoon and the cup. There all pristine. The next instruction was to get up to get the blood and he did, wandering over the desk and filling up a cup of the Re’em blood. He headed back to his desk, pouring the Re’em blood into the bowl with the Salamander blood and then proceeding to stir them five times clockwise and then five times anti-clockwise, exactly as it said on the board.

He pushed the bowl carefully to one side before sliding over his already cleaned pestle and mortar and placing the Griffin claw inside. He carefully crushed it, still keeping his eye on the time.

All for science.

Maddison watched the interaction between freckles and Culloden and was both surprised and sort of happy to see the guy wasn't as scary as he'd seemed originally. Good to know in case she ever wanted to go to him for Potion questions. Likely since Maddie had TONS of questions already and this was only her first lesson. And speaking of questions, he'd answered hers AND she got smiles too. Lucky her, huh? She smiled faintly in return and then peered into her cauldron, wondering what this would taste like when it was done. The pomegranate couldn't have that much of a impact on the overall taste, could it? You'd probably need more than one to make a significant difference. No time to ponder too much on taste, though. They were moving on now! The small brunette sat up a bit and watched Culloden, noting his mood and the way he gave instructions. It was as if he was already anticipating that they'd mess up the steps. Interesting.

5 minutes. Maddie lowered the heat and then as soon as she had, she set to work cleaning the tools she'd be using. First she cleaned the bowl, then the cup, then the metal spoon. All using the handy dandy spell she'd learned ALL by herself TODAY. She was SO good at magic all ready. Heh. Like there was ever any doubts she would be. Anyway...once those were clean, Maddie took her clean cup up to the front and carefully measured the re'em blood, filling the cup and carefully returning to her seat.

Once there, Maddie set the cup down and picked up the cup of Salamander blood. She added that to the clean bowl, then added in the re'em blood she'd gotten, and then she picked up her spoon. Time was running out, yeah? She needed to be quick!

5 times clockwise. Maddison stirred quickly but carefully and then she continued, stirring 5 times counterclockwise too. Then she cleaned the spoon, set it down, and moved the bowl to the side. That part was done quickly enough and then it was time to focus on the griffin claw which was SO cool, by the way.

After cleaning the mortar and pestle, Maddie placed the claw in and began to crush it. She kept a watchful eye on the time as she did just so she didn't go over the time limit the Professor dude set out. He seemed strict when it came to stuff like that and she didn't want her potion to blow up or anything. So she crushed...crushed...crushed the claw, waiting for the powder to form.

Five minutes had to be up by now.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Strength Potion: Enables you to lift cars and other heavy objects AND is good for Anemia (blood problems)

Ingredients
2 kilograms of dragon heart (a few grams more/less doesn’t matter)
1 pomegranate
A cup of re’em blood
One mature salamander’s blood
2 unicorn tail hairs
Powdered griffin claw
2 snake fangs

Steps
1.Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2.Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart
3.Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4.Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw.

The Professor wrote the next instructions on the blackboard and Jasmine read his notes carefully. She copied the details into her notebook and then set to work. Lowering the heat on her fire to medium, Jasmine checked the time on her watch. Five minutes, no more no less, that's what the Professor said.

Although Jasmine had already cleaned her potions materials, she cleaned the bowl, cup and spoon again just to be safe. She also re-cleaned her mortar and pestle for crushing the griffin claw. Pointing her wand at each item in turn, Jasmine said, "Scourgify". Just in case some dirt jumped onto her materials between steps one and four, she was covered.

Walking over to the Professor's desk, Jasmine measured one cup of ree'em blood and returned to her table. She poured the ree'em blood and the salamander blood into her immaculate bowl. Then Jasmine began to stir the blood mixture counting to herself five times clockwise and five times counterclockwise. Placing her bowl to the side, Jasmine retrieved her mortar and pestle. After putting the griffin claw into the mortar, she began to crush/mash/beat it into submission with her pestle. When she felt that she had crushed it as much as possible, Jasmine proceeded to clean her dirty equipment-again. Finally, she took a peek at her watch to check the time.

.... someone was in a bad mood today. Had he forgotten what little kids were like? West eyed the professor for a second when he yelled but then shrugged it off and went back to his own work. He turned the heat down to medium and then went ahead and cleaned a bowl, a cup, and a metal spoon.

West went up to the professor's desk and collected a cup of re'em blood and returned to his desk where he measured out the blood of a mature salamander into the bowl, then added the re'em to it. West stirred five times clockwise then five anti-clockwise, careful not to spill, and then set the bowl aside. He could smell the blood on the air.

Now. How much Griffin claw? West watched things for a moment and then decided it had to be just one or it would say so on the ingredient list. He crushed it with mortar and pestle with a practiced motion until it was sufficiently crushed.

Right. Done. Now he had a bowl of mixed blood, and a crushed griffin claw ready to be added when the instructions said so. Five minutes were up.

O_O

Merlin, Professor Culloden seemed to be in a bad mood today.

It was amazing how so many people could mess up a simple step like adding a pomegranate, but somehow it seemed to happen all too easily. Lux definitely did NOT want to mess up any of her potion and end up on Culloden's bad side. She liked the man, and did not want to end up being a victim of his anger.

Quickly, she jotted down the next step in the potion:

Quote:

STRENGTH POTION

• 2 kilograms of dragon heart (a few grams more/less doesn’t matter)
• 1 pomegranate
• A cup of re’em blood
• One mature salamander’s blood
• 2 unicorn tail hairs
• Powdered griffin claw
• 2 snake fangs

1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2. Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart
3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw (doesn't have to be a perfect powder - just crush as well as you can withOUT magic)

This one definitely seemed harder than the previous ones, and it was important for her to make sure that she managed to do everything asked for within that five minute window. After collecting a cup of re'em blood from the Professor's desk, Lux cleaned a bowl, stirrer, mortar, and pestle. Once finished, she turned the heat down to medium.

While alternating between looking at her watch and at what she was doing, she added the re'em and salamander's blood to the bowl, stirring five times clockwise then another five times counter-clockwise. Carefully, the bowl was set aside for the moment. Placing the griffin claw in her mortar, she crushed away at it using her pestle until she was satisfied with the results.

With a few more minutes to spare, Lux crossed the step off:

Quote:

STRENGTH POTION

• 2 kilograms of dragon heart (a few grams more/less doesn’t matter)
• 1 pomegranate
• A cup of re’em blood
• One mature salamander’s blood
• 2 unicorn tail hairs
• Powdered griffin claw
• 2 snake fangs

1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2. Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart
3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw (doesn't have to be a perfect powder - just crush as well as you can withOUT magic)

Didn't she say that he shouldn't help the kid next time? Why else would she be suggesting that he should tell the boy to get help from her, instead?

Jeez, girls were WEIRD.

Instead of retorting with a sassy comment, Grayson just nodded once at Lex. Just to say that he had understood and registered what she had said. Besides, starting an argument in the class wouldn't be ideal. He actually liked Potions, thank you very much.

Speaking of potion, he was going to go back to concentrating on that. The heat was lowered to medium before the fourth year glanced down at his watch and made a mental note of the time. The Professor had been specific about this particular set of instructions. A little too specific and clear about this, even talking slowly. If Grayson didn't know any better, he'd say that the man was annoyed. Or growing impatient. Or even trying not to shout at someone.

Whatever.

Grayson pulled the bowl, cup and metal spoon closer towards him and gave all three a magical clean in turn. Taking hold of the cup, he headed up towards the front of the classroom to collect the re'em blood. This visit really wasn't as exciting as the one with the dragon heart. Sure, that one had included a bit more focus with the measurement but it had been a DRAGON heart. Man, he wanted to see a dragon with his own eyes. Sigh.

Collecting up the cup of re'em blood, Grayson returned to his seat again. The re'em blood was added into the clean bowl, along with the salamander blood. What a bloody mixture. The fourteen year old took hold of the metal spoon and dipped it into the blood mix. Five clockwise stirs took place, followed by five counter clockwise stirs. Then the bowl was set aside. Off you go!

His blue eyes glanced up at the board. Griffin claw. Powdered. Uh huh. He pulled the mortar and pestle closer towards him and gave both of them a magical clean. The claw was then added into the mortar before he glanced down at his watch. Just over three and a half minutes had gone by. Quick crushing, then. Taking hold of the pestle, the Slytherin crushed the claw as quickly as he could, only stopping to tilt the mortar to see how fine the powder was.

There. Done.

Were the minutes up yet?

Text Cut: Notebook

Strength Potion
Grayson Whitlock

Ingredients:
- 2 kilograms of dragon heart (a few grams more/less doesn’t matter)
- 1 pomegranate
- A cup of re’em blood
- One mature salamander’s blood
- 2 unicorn tail hairs
- Powdered griffin claw
- 2 snake fangs

Instructions:
1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2. Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart
3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw.

Melek continued to glare at the professor as she barely listened to him talk. Mel turned the heat done to medium and sighed, eyeing her watch. Five minutes... okay! I can do this... Mel started to clean the bowl, cup and spoon with scourify so that they would be extremely clean. She was grimacing throughout this whole lesson, longing for a different class, different professor. Melek got up and headed to his desk. Mel mesured out a cup of re'em blood from his desk then returned to her desk. She slowly poured it into the bowl and then poured in the salamander blood. Melek took the spoon and started to stir it clockwise. One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Then Mel started to stir it counter-clockwise. One... Two... Three... Four... Five... She sat the bowl aside and started to crush the griffin claw, trying to make it perfectly powdered.

So this lesson was actually kinda amusing with all the students who were doing things wrong. Penelope wasn't sure if any of it was on purpose, but it was amusing all the same. Definitely not a boring first lesson at least.

Glancing away from the scene, she noticed the stuff in her cauldron was now boiling, so she added in the pomegranate carefully, not wanting it to splash.

The heat was then turned down to medium as instructed, and then went to mix up the blood. Which was also kinda gross. Would they be able to add any sort of flavoring to make this taste at least a little better if they had to drink it? Something to think about asking for later whenever they were supposed to use it.

The re'em and salamander blood were stirred carefully, five times clockwise and then another five counterclockwise, then the bowl was set aside as she grabbed the mortar, pestle, and griffin claw. The Gryffindor crushed it quickly since she was pretty sure the five minutes were almost over. Right? Pretty close at least. Probably would be whenever the next instructions were given.

Text Cut: Penelope's notes

Strength Potion

Ingredients

-2 kilograms of dragon heart✔
-1 pomegranate✔
-A cup of re’em blood
-One mature salamander’s blood
-2 unicorn tail hairs✔
-Powdered griffin claw
-2 snake fangs

Steps
1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2. Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart
3. Wait until it boils and then add the pomegranate.
4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. During the five minutes, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise, and crush the griffin claw with a mortar and pestle (doesn't have to be a perfect powder - just crush as well as you can without magic).
5.

It was time for him to carry out the steps, Professor Cullodeen assigned them to do next. Cris quickly wrote down the steps as the Professor recited them making sure he had everything written down carefully. The last thing he needed to do was botch his first potion in his very first potions lesson at this school.



Reviewing what he had just written down, Cris turned to the burner under his cauldron and adjusted the heat, turning the knob down to medium. Now he had 5 minutes to prepare the ingredients. Slipping on a clean pair of gloves over his hands, while keeping a close eye on his watch, Cris pulled out his mortar and pestle, a cup, a metal stirring spoon and mixing bowl.

He first cleaned the mixing bowl. Pointing his wand inside it he said,"Scourgify". Then he moved on to the cup, stirring spoon, mortar and pestle before ending the spell. Holstering his wand, he carefully inspected all five items and once he was satisfied, Cris picked up the cup and walked up the Professor's desk. Picking up the container, he poured the re'em blood into the cup.

Once he had a cupful, Cris placed the container back on the desk and returned to his workstation. Measuring out the required amount of salamander blood, Cris poured both types of blood into his mixing bowl. Next, he picked up the stirring spoon and proceeded to mix the blood, first stirring five times clockwise....one..two..three..four..five...before switching directions, and stirring five times in a counter clockwise direction.

One...two...three...four...five.

Three minutes left....

Picking up the griffin claw with his finger tips, Cris dropped it into his mortar. With the pestle, he began crushing the claw. Crush...crush...pause to inspect...crush again. Once he was satisfied that he had thoroughly crushed the claw to its appropriate consistency, Cris put down the pestle.

Checking his watch, he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't think he would be able to do it, but he had everything prepared with a few seconds to spare. Mental pat on the back.

Picking up his quill again, Cris updated his journal.



Putting down his quill, he kept watch over his cauldron while he waited for further instructions. As he sat, Cris realized two things. How the Professor had stressed not using magic while they were crushing the claw and second using a metal spoon. Wondering whether there was any significance, Cris raised his hand to ask.

"Professor, you stressed that we not use magic while crushing the claw. Would using magic somehow affect the effects of the potion itself? You also told us to use a metal spoon. Was it just a matter of preference or does using a wooden spoon, like the use of magic, affect the potion in some way?"

It was booorring just writing but Kyroh wasn't going to just leave. He had come to school to learn! Although at the same time he was NOT about to touch the dragon's heart so writing was the only answer.

Maybe he just wasn't cut out for potions?

Which was kind of sad considering potions seemed like a class where you mixed a whole bunch of weird things together to get a SUPER AWESOME result. Poking at his measuring cup, Kyroh looked up and his eyes went wide. THE PROFESSOR WAS COMING BACK TO KICK HIM OUT!

He hesitated, about to push himself on the ground to hide but the Professor was already there.

...Don't yell at him please? "Hi?"

Oh. "You will!" Kyroh nodded. He hoped he would like him. That way he would not kick him out of the class. Kyroh listed to the professor and nodded a few times, although his words didn't REALLY mean that much to him. For science. But science seemed mean. "But we don't really need to be strong like those people in accent times. I mean lifting a car and stuff doesn't really help you to right? Cause you are just a Professor and you don't need to lift stuff anyways. Unless someone was trapped under a car and dying and you wanted to save the day but I think they'd already be dead by then." Not like comic books at all. He was rambling just a bit because the Professor was actually looking at him now. He had OTHER questions to ask the man as well but he didn't want him to hate him so Kyroh just didn't ask. It was a first. "I still don't want to touch it even for science though sir. So i'm just going to follow along with someone else." Was that OKAY? Could he do that?



He didn't wait for an answer.

Gazing around the room as the new set of instructions were given Kyroh's eyes fell on that boy from the feast! Sure there was that boy from Diagon Alley and the girl from the boat but the feast guy! The actual real Hufflepuff. He seemed ahead. Pomegrante in and everything. He was even crushing the claw now! Grabbing his notebook and quill he paused. Bring cauldron? Don't bring cauldron? Bring cauldron?

Eh it was too heavy anyways.

Without a second thought he ran over to the boy and away from the scary professor. "Hi! Do you remember me? I'm Kyroh and you look like you know what you are doing so i'm gonna watch you because I don't want to touch the dragon's heart, and the Professor is kind of scary." He was waaaay behind anyways. "Is that okay?" He had even left his cauldron and kit behind to come here see?

So step three was easy enough. Sophie kept watch on her cauldron while she waited for the mixture to come to a boil. Soon enough, it did, and so she added the pomegranate. She turned the heat to medium and listened as Culloden detailed how very important it was to wait exactly five minutes.

She spent that five minutes cleaning the things she'd already used and also straightened up her work station. Of course, she did the important things, too. She mixed the re'em and salamander blood in a bowl then began stirring them together. Five times clockwise...five times counter-clockwise. She used her mortar and pestle to crush the griffin claw. She glanced up and Culloden, waiting for him to make the official call.

Beverly watched for any change in her potion, drumming her fingers on the tabletop as she waited for further instruction. She took a few seconds to check up on Jeremiah - not that he needed it, but just...she wanted to. Catching his smile, she shot him a shy little one back before returning her attention to back to her potion. INNER EEP! OMM.

Professor Culloden's voice snapped her back, her hand flying toward her quill to write the following instructions down. Get your head in the game, Wayne! Taking in what she was supposed to do, Beverly started by digging into her bag for a small, old-looking stopwatch - it'd been her brother's and now hers. Setting it for five minutes she lowered the heat to medium. And yes, she sat the stopwatch between her and Jeremiah in case he didn't have a watch. She was simply the best like that.

Collecting the instruments and ingredients needed all in one go, she set out to clean the bowl, cup and metal spoon first with a quick Scourgify. Taking the re'em and salamander blood, she carefully poured them into the bowl and stirred them as directed. See, how hard was potions? It was a piece of cauldron cake, and almost just as enjoyable.

Time for the crushing! Placing the griffin claw in the mortar Beverly did just that, and she was good at it too. Crush, crush, crush...

After the Dragon Heart had been added, Austin did as the professor instructed. He waited until the water boiled. He started to get a bit nervous when the water didn't boil right away, and started to get even more nervous when he watched the other students add their pomegranate. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and returned to his cauldron, which had now started to boil. He decided placing the pomegranate gently into the cauldron was better than plopping it in. He didn't think he'd get great marks if he let boiling hot water fly everywhere.

After he placed the pomegranate into the cauldron, he concentrated on turning the heat down. Turning it up was simple enough, but down? That proved to be a more difficult task for Austin. It took a few seconds of staring at the flame, but once he was sure it was low enough, Austin tidied up his work area a little bit. He put the rest of the ingredients on the top right corner, his dirty dish in the top middle, and pulled his mortar, bowl, measuring cup, and wet ingredients towards him. He first cleaned his dishes, then headed up to the front of the classroom to collect the blood. Austin wasn't too grossed out by blood. Living with his mom, who was a doctor at a local wizarding hospital, Austin saw blood all the time. It really wasn't a big deal, and he couldn't understand why people fainted at the sight of it.

Once he had measured out a perfect cup of blood, he brought it back to his table, and poured it into the clean bowl. Then he added the salamander blood to the bowl, and began mixing with a clean spoon.

Clockwise

One... Two... Three... Four... Five...

He made sure to stir at a slower pace, so as not to spill it everywhere. He didn't need others fainting.

Counter clockwise now.

One... Two... Three... Four.. Five...

Good.

He set the bowl and spoon to the side, and pulled over his mortar, pestle, and griffen claw. He carefully put in the claw, and began crushing it. He was quite enjoying himself, actually, as he found this to be the most exciting part. It was an odd thing to be excited about, but it was a lot of fun to Austin. Once he was sure that the powder was to his liking, he looked up, hoping the professor told them the next step before the five minutes were up.

For once she wasn't the trouble maker and she was actually not minding being quiet for now. Sure, it most likely had everything to do with the fact that she was making a super awesome potion and she just had a dragon heart in her hand. The professor was kind of cranky, but the crankiness wasn't directed at her so she would just keep on trucking.

AJ listened to the next set of instructions and figured she would have a difficult time keeping time considering she didn't have a watch. She decided to just go through the motions with another kid and hope that they waited the allotted time. She turned the heat down to medium and was a bit bummed to see her flames dying down, but she knew that she had to let them go. She approached the professor's desk and took the supplies needed. The blood looked cool and she was totally surprised that they were actually working with this stuff.

Taking stock of everybody else around here she decided that her bowl definitely needed to be cleaned before she used it. After about 5 failed attempts she finally got the charm to work for her. She mixed the two bloods together. It was time to stir. What was the directions again? The first year stirred five times clockwise and then five times the other way. Now it was crushing time. YAY! She crushed the griffin claw without any magic which was no big deal considering she had NO clue on how to do it with magic anyways.

Oh yeah, she was supposed to be timing this. She looked at a student beside her who seemed to be on the same page as her and decided to go with that. She was pretty sure that she managed the task in five minutes. How would the professor really know anyways?

Thing about Potions was that you could really get quite invested in stuff like crushing a griffin claw. Culloden had said it didn't need to be crushed perfectly, but it was something to do, right? Then again... maybe it would be better if he, err... sto-

Woah, hello. Small Ravenclaw.

Toby blinked at the kid, allowing himself only a moment or two to be startled before he smiled at the kid. "Yeah, I remember you. Hey Kyroh." The one who gave Airey a chicken leg. How could he forget?

Didn't want to touch the dragon's heart, huh? Toby nodded in sympathy. Yeah, he could understand that.

"Well, It's okay with me for you to chill over here and watch," Toby said, glancing up and over at Culloden just to check that he wasn't about to flip his lid about a runaway first year before looking to Kyroh again. "Some of these ingredients are kinda-" Toby made a face (because he didn't have the right WORDS) before going on "-and Professor Culloden likes to be super mean, sometimes. It's cool. I'll protect you."

Speaking of Culloden, Toby looked up at flashed the man a hopeful smile. He'd be cool with this, right? Riiiiiight? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?

Listening to the Professor giving out answers to his classmates was distracting enough. The b-word momentarily ebbed away from his brain (for about two minutes). That was until the Professor himself announced the next set of instructions. Trent felt as though he was going through his execution. Of course, he followed through the first part of the step: lowering the heat. And yes, he did have a watch of his own so he didn't have to go milling around asking to share the time.

Trent stood still watching the hands of his watch tick. Five minutes only and in order to be productive during that waiting period they had to go ahead and measure the re'em and salamander b-word and crush the griffin claw. Now that would have been a piece of cake of Trent if only they weren't dealing with the b-word. That was his Achilles' heel. And from years of experience, he found it easier for him and everyone else if he made them aware of that fact before certain consequences arose (like you know, fainting out of nowhere and knocking the cauldron down accidentally that it's incomplete contents would spill wildly creating a bizarre reaction to each student in the room that their biceps would grow excessively in size). So, that was it. Trent decided that it was best if he informed the Professor of his phobia and what better way than to proclaim it as if he was merely asking a the man a question. But first, Trent went about and cleaned the a bowl, cup and metal spoon.

When he was done doing so, the Ravenclaw took a huge breath, wiped the sweat accumulating on his hairline, applied tension on the muscle between his left hand's thumb and index finger with the same fingers of the other before raising a hand. "Sir, Professor.." Throat clearing. "I have....hemophobia but I would really like to finish this Strengthening Potion." I can't stand being exposed to blood for extended periods of time. I might faint in a while. I don't care if you think I'm such a weakling but I do need help. The B-word free kind of help, preferably.

Scratching one side of his lip with his thumbnail, Trent nodded for emphasis. Yea, he had a weakness and everybody knows that now. Who cares. At least he acknowledged it and owned it.